Joanna Palani interview: she fought Isis in Syria and now fears for her life at home in Denmark

At 18 Joanna Palani quit her studies in Copenhagen to become a sniper on the front line of the battle against Islamic State. Now back home, she is scared of reprisals from jihadists – and ostracised by her own community, who call her a ‘fake Muslim’. By Janice Turner

Palani photographed, left, by Sarah Buthmann in Copenhagen in 2016 and, right, by Asger Ladefoged in Iraq in April 2015

No one is sure Joanna Palani will turn up for our interview. At the weekend I hear rumours that she has been arrested on suspicion of possessing guns; her phone goes dead and our meeting is cancelled. When she finally arrives at the agreed central Copenhagen hotel – small, lithe and watchful – she apologises both for her lateness and that beneath her black quilted jacket is a bulletproof vest.

As a sniper with the Kurdish women’s brigade, the YPJ, Palani fought on the front line against Islamic State, rescued enslaved Yazidi girls and survived the 2014 siege of Kobani in which most of her unit died, when Isis fighters were so close she could hear them change the magazines in their guns. But now